At the unveiling of its first edition of entertainment marketing report, â€˜Showbiz, The Indian Superpowerâ€™ Vinik Karnik, Business Head - ESP Properties, talked about what went into conceptualising it, the trends that caught him by surprise and the way ahead. Excerpts from the interview:

Whatâ€™s your take on the Rs 100 crore total co-branded marketing media spends for Hindi films in the year?I was little surprised at the number because I thought itâ€™s a smaller business. When I see the ratio of 1000 movies to just 200 films getting investment support, suddenly everyone feels if itâ€™s done in the right way there is potential for this number to go up. We spoke to industry people including film production units, who ultimately are the beneficiaries.

We thought that the brands are not leveraging movie associations in a strategic way therefore it's staying at a Rs 100 crore figure. Because the business model is based on box office they don't see this as a big monetisation opportunity. Film production wants the brand to take the game slightly up. Brand guys want little creative support from them. It's somewhere there. But at least the thinking is on. Rs 100 crore number has the potential to go up.

What are the trends that caught you by surprise? One is the Rs 100 crore number. Second is the marketing mix in terms of percentage spent. Film producers spend 10-15 per cent of their production money on marketing. We thought itâ€™s less than that. The surprise in the endorsement space was in the digital numbers in terms of the time celebrities spend on their social assets.

What went into creating this report? Because we are the oldest in the business we were tracking this overtime on a year-on-year basis.

We had all the data point internally. We spoke to a lot of industry people, took their feedback on our data and whether they agree with it or not. It's a mash-up of multiple points of views and our own proprietary data. We took eight to nine months to come up with it.

How are you planning to take â€˜Showbizâ€™ ahead?This report is going to go to the world in terms of brands, the film production studios, and the marketing community. It all depends on how those guys want to leverage it. Over time we will take feedback. Your take on Indiaâ€™s 5-7 per cent share in the overall licensing pie? Imagine as Indians we are spending money on licensed products without even realising it. The point is why are we not creating our own licensed products. It's a big market out there. The trigger point of this is- what are Indians spending on. Do you see regional coming up in a big way?Outside of Tamil Nadu/ Andhra Pradesh there is a big market. Bhojpuri is a big market. Marathi and Punjabi are picking up.

Whatâ€™s the game plan next year? We want to build and deep dive into the current subjects in the next two-three years. We want to get deeper into TN, Punjab regional market, regional celebrity quotient, and social engagement.

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